Four short links: 9 August 2013

Edward Snowden, angel investors, Cindy Alvarez, memory locality

Lavabit, email service Snowden reportedly used, abruptly shuts down - Boing Boi ... -- Remember when word circulated that Edward Snowden was using Lavabit , an email service that purports to provide better privacy and security for users than popular web-based free services like Gmail? Lavabit's owner has shut down the service, and posted a message on the lavabit.com home page today about wanting to avoid "being complicit in crimes against the American people."

How to Convince Investors -- The people who are really good at acting formidable often solve this problem by giving investors the impression that while no investors have committed yet, several are about to. It's slightly dickish of investors to care more about who else is investing than any other aspect of your startup, and misleading them about how far along you are with other investors seems the complementary countermove. If instead of seeming evasive and ashamed about having been turned down (and thereby implicitly agreeing with the verdict) you talk candidly about what scared investors about you, you'll seem more confident, which they like, and you'll probably also do a better job of presenting that aspect of your startup. [ 11 ]